SOURCE :- SIASAT NEWS
Kolkata: Former West Bengal chief minister’s support to the Congress candidate in the Nandigram assembly bypoll is a striking reversal of decades of political rivalry, observers feel, signalling a possible recalibration of opposition politics in the state at a time when the TMC is battling its deepest organisational crisis.
Banerjee‘s decision to back Milan Pradhan came hours after her faction’s nominee, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew from the October 6 contest following a meeting with Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in Kolkata.
The Election Commission had, meanwhile, frozen the Trinamool Congress’ traditional name and ‘Jora Ghash Phul’ symbol amid an internal party dispute, allotting Banerjee’s faction and her dissidents separate names and symbols for the upcoming bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar.
Announcing support for Pradhan on September 18, Banerjee had described Congress as a “sister party” and a “natural ally”, saying the decision was taken in the larger interest of the country and to strengthen the INDIA bloc.
Banerjee had also said that she wanted to send a message about the future of the opposition alliance beginning from Bengal.
The timing of this extension of olive branch, however, gives the move a distinctly tactical dimension. Banerjee’s camp had initially fielded a candidate in Nandigram and only withdrew from the contest after the nominee pulled out.
Her support for the Congress therefore represents both an attempt to prevent division of the anti-BJP vote and a political response to an unusually difficult moment for her faction, say observers.
The development has acquired further resonance after Pradhan was arrested in connection with a case linked to the 2007 Nandigram land agitation, shortly after Banerjee’s announcement, and jailed.
The irony, however, is difficult to miss. Banerjee herself emerged from the Congress, breaking away in the late 1990s to establish the TMC as a vehicle to challenge the Left Front, and what she regarded as the Congress’ inadequate opposition to the CPI(M). Yet, the two parties have periodically returned to each other when confronted by a larger political adversary.
They fought the 2001 Bengal assembly election together after Banerjee severed ties with the NDA, and later joined hands again during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. The alliance reached its high point in 2011, when Congress and TMC jointly ended the Left Front’s 34-year rule in Bengal.
But, the partnership subsequently collapsed as differences over policy, seat-sharing and the functioning of the state government intensified.
The relationship became particularly acrimonious during Banerjee’s 15-year rule. Congress leaders have repeatedly accused the TMC of politically marginalising their organisation, while the Trinamool Congress portrayed Congress as an ineffective force whose decline benefited the BJP and the Left.
The latest gesture, observers say, amounts to more than routine bypoll arithmetic; it marks an unusual moment in which Banerjee has publicly placed Congress at the centre of an anti-BJP electoral strategy in Bengal.
Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, however, sought to downplay any suggestion of an immediate political rapprochement. Reacting to Banerjee’s move, he said she should support the Congress “not as a fallen leaf but by holding the hand of the banyan tree”, asserting that the party’s revival under Rahul Gandhi should be recognised.
“One should note the timing of the support. It happened after her candidate withdrew from the race. She how has the ‘football player’ symbol, but she has no player left to play her game,” Chowdhury said, referring to the EC’s temporarily allotted electoral symbol in the wake of the bitter intra-party factional rivalry for name, symbol and assets.
“That’s why she has come to us, knowing we are the only third force that has the ability to take on the BJP,” he said.
Bengal Pradesh Congress president Subhankar Sarkar, though, hummed a different tune.
“The Congress welcomes any support coming from the anti-BJP and secular political repository of the state, which will recognise our party’s fight against the saffron conglomerate with Rahul Gandhi leading it from the front,” he said.
“One never knows this development in Bengal may open up a new political path facilitating a separate cementing factor for the opposition,” Sarkar said.
Congress leaders have slammed Pradhan’s arrest, with Gandhi describing it as political vendetta, and vowing that the party would “fight and win”.
BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya, however, dismissed the proposed opposition understanding, saying: “Adding zero to zero will only result in zero.”
He argued that both the Congress and TMC were seeking political survival, and that an alliance would not revive either party.
For Banerjee and her faction, the Nandigram decision could be an attempt to preserve a broader anti-BJP constituency, while its own organisational identity is under unprecedented pressure.
Supporting the Congress also allows Banerjee to project herself as a national opposition leader rather than merely the head of a faction fighting over the Trinamool’s name and symbol, say observers.
“There is no love lost between the two sides, but Banerjee seems to be clutching at straws,” senior journalist Biswajit Bhattacharya said.
“But since both sides are struggling for political foothold, this arrangement could benefit both for the time being, with the Congress hoping to gain from some of Banerjee’s remaining popularity,” he added.
The larger question concerns the INDIA bloc. Banerjee’s language, particularly her reference to Congress as a “natural ally” and her call for the opposition to fight together, could be an effort to revive coordination at a time when differences among the bloc constituents have repeatedly weakened the anti-BJP campaign.
But Nandigram is unlikely, by itself, to erase years of rivalry and the existing lack of trust between the two sides. The Congress remains determined to rebuild independently in Bengal, while Banerjee has historically resisted arrangements that could dilute TMC’s primacy in the state.
SOURCE : SIASAT
